Taking the torch to spread the word about the Peter Max inspired 1972 Topps Baseball set...count down style.

Friday, December 12, 2014

#644 Bernie Allen

exceptionally good college football player…a second baseman by
trade…signed by the Twins out of Purdue University…First pro season hit .246 in
AA…Twins took a chance for the 1962 season…responded with a solid .269 and
showed some pop with 14 home runs…second in ROY voting…turned out to a career
season…production declined in subsequent year…spent most of 1965 in AAA Denver
missing out on the Twins World Series run…returned to big club for 1966
as a part timer…Traded to Senators for 1967 so the Twins could make room for up
and coming Rod Carew…debut year was unsuccessful hitting .193…Nats stayed with
Bernie and he was able to upgrade to a .241 average over next three seasons and
mostly being the regular starter…1971 brought a split of work @ 2nd
or 3rd base sharing time with a multitude of others…hit .266 in his final year
with the franchise…Traded to Yankees for 1972…had his second best slugging
years but poor on base pct resulted in loss of playing time…production
diminished further in 1973 splitting time with NYY and Montreal Expos…released
at the end of the season...despite sentence in back of card never did manage a team at any level.